WE are what we know. We talk by phone. We drive. We wash our hands. Yet we do these things without thought because someone, some when, first came up with the idea.

And often you’d be surprised at just how long ago this was.

Caveman condoms (and later goat-bladder versions), feminism and vending machines are just some examples of world-changing ideas ahead of their time, by centuries. But once refined, realised and adopted, they’re almost instantly taken for granted.

Before reading on: what’s your Big Idea to make our world a better place NOW? Share it at MyBigIdea.org.au. The winners will be developed and made real.capi-webframe:5156671157bfe9d073f1f2c0d6a2f57e

Our world is a mix of past knowledge, modern application — and discoveries waiting to be made. And when an idea changes, so do we.

Here are just 10 of those radical thoughts that eventually shaped our way of life.

1: SEX AND THE CITY OF LADIES: FEMINISM

Camera IconNot quite Carrie Bradshaw, but ... Christin de Pizan’s ‘The Book of the City of Ladies’ was a belter of its time.Picture: Supplied

WAS there really room for a feminist in Medieval Europe? Amid the dictates of the Church and the restraints of a feudal caste system, a spark of the idea can certainly be found. It took a 25-year-old widow living in 1400s Venice to put pen to paper with the radical idea that a woman was not a lesser being. Unusual simply because of her ability to read and write, Christine de Pizan actually managed to eke out a living for herself and her family as a writer — the first European woman known to have done so. Her 1405 book “The Book of the City of Ladies” never really made the bestseller lists. But the way it elevated historical women to the same status as great men — and her perceptive commentary on the state of the aristocracy, the notion of chivalry and the implications of fashion — won a dedicated following among certain sectors of the era’s elite. It would take until 1902, when Australia became the first nation to allow women to both vote and be elected to parliament, for her ideas to bear fruit.

2: DRONES

Camera IconLove bugs, or hate them? ... The Kettering Bug was an early drone.Picture: Supplied

THEY can be silent, patient killers. They can also just be fun. Mostly, they’re conveniently cheap. Drones are now almost everywhere. But the idea of a remote-controlled flying machine has actually been around for more than a century. In 1894, Australian Lawrence Hargrave achieved the first powered flight when he attached a small engine to a cable-controlled assembly of four box-kites. By World War I his idea had evolved into unmanned drones, such as the Kettering “Bug” which could fly a pre-programmed course towards a designated target. While the idea never went away, it was not until the 1990s that semi-autonomous, combat-capable drones such as the famous Predator really took off — thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and globe-spanning communications. Now smaller, camera-equipped versions are buzzing around our parks and backyards — many controlled by a smartphone. But they’re also doing stoic work, surveying sites and sampling the atmosphere at great heights.

3: AN ALTERNATIVE TO SPECTACLES

Camera IconEye have an idea ... if you can’t see, Rene’s working on a fix.Picture: Supplied

THE pace of life is changing in a blur. But what if you couldn’t see what was happening? It’s been a long time since distorted vision was a problem. The first eye glasses were invented in Italy, in about 1286. But for the appearance-conscious, the idea of an invisible lens attached to the eye itself is an attractive alternative. Rene Descartes, in 1632, built upon the observations of Leonardo da Vinci, who noted how a water-filled glass could magnify sight. Descartes suggested a glass tube — filled with liquid — could be suitably shaped to correct vision. Blinking, however, proved to be an insurmountable problem. So it wasn’t until the 1887 that the first tolerable rigid glass eye-lens was developed in Germany. A major step forward came in 1936 when glass began to be replaced by plastic. But a rapid-fire chain of refinements finally led to Czech chemists Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lim proposing the use of soft gel lenses in 1959.

4: MY BIG BUY-DEA: VENDING MACHINES

Camera IconPack of Twisties and some Holy Water ... actually, hold the Twisties. They haven’t been invented yet.Picture: Supplied

FEEL like a snack? Some cash? Perhaps an iPad? Vending machines sit almost everywhere, largely unnoticed — until you need something. But they’re not a new idea. The earliest known example dates from the first century AD, in Alexandria, Egypt. Strapped for cash to fund his other work, Greek inventor Heron hit upon a labour-saving way of making some money on the side. Upon the deposit of a mere brass coin in the appropriate slot, you could buy yourself a measure of Holy Water — guaranteed to solve a multitude of ailments — without the embarrassment of having to talk to a priest. The coin would fall on a lever — carefully balanced to topple under the correct weight — which would, in turn, move a valve to allow the water out. A counterweight and spring caused the lever to snap back in place (and drop the coin in a tray) after a specific time.

5: WASHING HANDS

Camera IconYou reek-a slightly less now ... and after humanity’s hand-washing eureka moment, it would only be a matter of time before we got soap on a rope too.Picture: Supplied

WE do it without thinking (or at least should). After visiting the loo. Gardening. Before open-heart surgery. The imperative of washing our hands is drilled into our minds from a very young age. But it wasn’t always so. Infections and disease were first thought to be the acts of demons. And who would argue with resentful gods? Then they were thought to be carried by foul smells in the air — resulting in all those heavy curtains in windows and hallways we see in old photos. But it was a perceptive medico in 1847 Vienna who first noticed an abnormally high mortality rate of children and mothers being treated in maternity wards staffed by doctors and medical students. So why was the ward staffed by midwives doing so much better? Dr Ignaz Semmelweis noted the doctors and students would often be conducting autopsies before dashing off to respond to an emergency. A resentful old guard, scandalised that Dr Semmelweis’ recommendations for cleanliness, hygiene and disinfection implied they were the ones to blame for all those deaths, had him sacked. The idea, however, gradually caught on even though its originator gradually went insane — and eventually died of sepsis, aged just 47.

6: SOLAR CELLS

Camera IconNice one, sun ... bright spark Becquerel took ancient man’s reliance on the sun for warmth to the next level.Picture: Supplied

IT seems as though solar panels have taken hold on the roofs of our suburbs in next to no time at all. But it took years to hit that economic performance sweet spot. Some 170 years to be specific. It was in 1839 that Alexandre Edmond Becquerel noted an electric current was produced when sunlight fell on an electrode submerged in a conductive solution. We now call this the photovoltaic effect. But it took more than a century before Russell Ohl built the first effective solar cell in 1941. Since then it’s been an ongoing race against time to miniaturise the technology, and extract every volt of efficiency possible, to create panels that can compete on a cost-basis with traditional fossil fuels.

7: DAD, WE NEED TO FIX THE WIFI! CABLE INTERNET

Camera IconJust Google it ... or at very least send a message in Morse Code.Picture: Supplied

IT is our life. And not just if you’re a wifi-addicted teen. Email in an instant. Television on demand. How we survived the pre-internet age has long since passed into legend (sort of). But like all life-changing ideas, this one took time — and a swarm of affiliated ideas — to grow to fruition. The original concept sounds remarkably like what we have now. In 1823 Francis Reynolds laid 16km of cable encased in insulating glass. Electrical impulses could turn the dials of clocks towards specific letters of the alphabet. In 1832 a Russian named Pavel Schilling hit upon the idea of using such a cable to transmit data using the binary language of noughts and ones — the same language being used to stream Game of Thrones into our homes now. And in 1838 a modified form of binary, Morse Code, emerged in the US and the globe-spanning network of cable began the long process of shrinking the world into a digital village.

WHERE would we be without the privy? Apart from the occasional, urgent “tree-wee” and repressed memories of that campsite long-drop, it’s a daily luxury long since relegated to the realms of unconsidered necessity. So how the ancient Minoans coped after the collapse of their civilisation, we’ll never know. What we do know is that some 3500 years ago the oldest known city in Europe — Knossos on Crete — had a remarkably well-developed sewer system bringing in fresh water and flushing out the waste. The pipes even gradually expanded in size, allowing a “jet” effect to resist blockages. Their version of a flushing toilet would not be all that unfamiliar today: a small partitioned room with water delivered from a cistern via pipes built into the wall. It even had a wooden seat. Archaeologists aren’t certain, but some Minoan buildings appear to have been plumbed with a dual-pipe system suggesting hot and cold running water. Not bad for 1500BC.

9: HUMANOID ROBOT (WELL, A CLOCKWORK MONK)

Camera IconOK, this is just creepy ... as are most AI bots, even the ‘cute’ ones.Picture: Supplied

IN Renaissance Europe, prayer was big business. Well-to-do types were terribly concerned about the fate of their souls, so the idea of currying favour with the Creator by funding years’ worth of prayers to be said on your behalf at local religious centres caught on. The story behind the Clockwork Monk, a remarkable relic held by the Smithsonian Institution, goes something like this: King Philip II of Spain commissioned clock maker Juanelo Turriano in 1562 to “make a miracle” in praise of God. The king was exultant at the miraculous recovery of his sick son, the crown prince, after intense regimen of earnest prayer. The clockwork monk was its outcome. With its complex internal mechanism of gears and springs, the mechanical mannequin can roll about with its mouth and arms moving in silent prayer. (One has to wonder, was the prayer machine really created because the king didn’t want to have to go through it all again?) The notion of artificial humans has gripped the public imagination for centuries, though fully-functional humanoid robots remain on the cusp of reality.

THINK free love only became a thing in the Swinging 60s? Think again. It appears it may have been around since time began. While some historians argue that some smudges of paint on the Grotte des Combarrelles caverns are an artistic representation of caveman condom use, a somewhat stronger argument is put forward for Ancient Egypt. The incredibly fine linen loincloths worn by men may have done more than cover their modesty: some speculate it also provided a convenient sheath to protect from disease during intercourse.

Camera IconA surprised goat. Source: TwitterPicture: Supplied

Then there’s a Minoan account — from about the same time — which cites the protective properties of a goat’s bladder (insert Horny Goat Weed joke here, if you must, dear reader — and check out the entirely gratuitous Demonic Goat video below). Rome went on to refine the idea by using both linen and sheep intestines, while the early Chinese used an oil-soaked silk. So the modern condom can be seen as the product of thousands of years of evolution and experimentation. But the idea behind its application remains the same.